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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Pink Gellac Starter Kit and Butterfly Collection: Swatches and Review

Provided for Review

Hello all! I have something new to me to share with you today. First, I am going to disclose a little secret.....before this week, I have never done a gel manicure before. I don't even know how that is possible as a nail blogger but there you go. I have received some gel products in the past but it never seemed like something I would be interested in. I was totally fine with frequent polish changes, especially with all the beautiful indie polishes I have. But after reading a few reviews from other nail bloggers I follow, when Pink Gellac approached me, I decided to just give in and give them a test drive. I received the Pink Gellac Starter Kit and the Butterfly Collection to review, so let's jump right in!

This is what comes in the kit when you purchase the Pink Gellac Starter Kit:

As soon as I opened my kit, I read the instruction booklet thoroughly but I also watched the application and removal how-to videos on Pink Gellac's YouTube channel. They were all easy enough to follow so with a bit of confidence I began the process.

The rounded brush itself was awesome, it is a wider brush so I really only had to apply a minimal amount of strokes for polish coverage. The Pink Gellac Ultra Shine top coat is a no-wipe top coat, so there is not a sticky finish you need to remove, which I appreciated. The formula itself was thinner then I expected for a gel polish. It's still thicker then your standard non-gel creme but it was self leveled and applied well on my nails.

The lamp is a smaller size LED lamp which I really liked because it did not take a lot of space on my desk but it was just a tad too small for me to fit all five fingers comfortably. I cured my first four fingers and then my thumb separately. The base coat only needs 15 seconds to cure, and then each layer of color and the topcoat take 60 seconds to cure and the lamp turns off when 60 seconds is up. There is also a beep after the 30 second mark.

I used liquid latex as instead of the base coat for my swatch photos because, well, I am not going to soak off 6 polishes in a row but I did leave Tropical as my final swatch, so I could leave it on both both hands, to test for removal. The left hand I buffed with the file and wrapped in foil (with a pure acetone soaked cotton ball) to remove the polish. My right hand is I am leaving on for a few more days to get an idea of wear time.

Pricing, that is always something I factor in. The Starter Kit I received retails right now for $65, which is a great price for all that you receive. If you want to purchase individual polishes, they are $11 each, which is about average for a gel polish.

Pink Gellac is a company based out of The Netherlands and they have a few different ways you can buy, including directly from their shop (they do ship worldwide and shipping is free over $65). You can also buy from Chickettes Boutique in the USA, though there is a slight price difference between the Boutique and Pink Gellac directly. My package took a bit longer than anticipated to get to me from Pink Gellac but I don't know if it was because of my post office or just the randomness of shipping internationally.

Overall, I really was impressed by the quality of the products I received and I am definitely going to be using my system again, especially this summer with a few trips I have. My only critique, and this is truly a minor thing, I wish there was an option to pick your polish color in the starter kit because I don't think I would have picked this exact shade of pink for myself, but I can see it as a very flattering color on a range of skin tones.

This collection is a summer polish collection and when you see the colors, they exactly what I would expect from a summer release. The colors are crazy super bright and bold and I will be using these for sure as pedicure colors. The polishes that contained glitter particles were thicker in formula compared to the cremes so when you do apply, I recommend wiping off as much excess from the brush to ensure thin coats. That said, I applied two coats for all the polishes. Do I have a favorite? You bet I do! Blazin' Purple is to die for, especially with the flash of blue iridescence in the gorgeous purple base.